As the only remaining “rogue” member of President Bush’s “Axis of
Evil,” Iran is often presented as the country that poses the most serious
threat to America. Despite this mutual hostility, which has been felt at
varying intensities since the Iranian Revolution thirty years ago, Iran
remains a mystery to most Americans. This course does not address the
present controversies, but instead provides the historical context through
which one can better appreciate the current situation. It moves beyond the
Revolution to focus on the watershed moments, leading figures, and dominant
themes of Iranian modernity. It bypasses the ubiquitous invocations of the
hostage crisis and “Death to America” rallies to explore instead the
long and complicated history of Iran’s response to the West’s
ideological and technological challenge. By the end of the course,
students should have a basic familiarity with modern Iranian history and
should be aware of the challenges involved in writing the history of this
region.

The course assumes no prior knowledge and approaches the topic through an
engaging mixture of books and articles, historical documents, films, and
images. This is a writing class, so do not expect polished lectures and
passive learning. Instead, there will be short overviews of each week’s
topic after which most of our class time will be devoted to writing
workshops, discussions, and student presentations.

Syllabi are available to current LSA students. IMPORTANT: These syllabi are provided to give students a general idea about the courses, as offered by LSA departments and programs in prior academic terms. The syllabi do not necessarily reflect the assignments, sequence of course materials, and/or course expectations that the faculty and departments/programs have for these same courses in the current and/or future terms.